Only in America

▪ Texas officials are defending their requirement that statesanctioned highway memorials include a large crucifix by labeling the cross a “nonsectarian symbol of death.” A 2011 state law authorizing families to pay $350 to erect memorials at the sites of fatal motorcycle crashes mandates the cross regardless of the deceased’s religious affiliation. Officials insist the cross is not a religious symbol.

▪ Belle Plaine, Minn., officials are removing a veterans memorial with a cross from a city park to prevent a Satanic group from erecting its own monument. In response to a legal challenge to the Christian-themed memorial, the city had approved the Satanic group’s monument. That caused a furor, so officials decided to ban all religious memorials, because they had “promoted divisiveness.”